As integrated circuit (IC) wafer fabrication process technology advances from sub-micron to nanometers, the heat generated by ICs increases greatly due to the increased number of devices, such as transistors, as well as an increase in the device current leakage. Therefore, the package and system thermal performance becomes a concern for high performance integrated circuits (or integrated circuit devices, or chips).
Heat sinks (cooling devices) are sometimes used to dissipate heat generated by the devices. Most heat sinks are made of materials with high coefficients of thermal conductivity. Most heat sinks for such applications have pins, fins, and/or ridges, which are used to increase their surface areas. The large surface areas of heat sinks allow such surfaces to come in contact with the surrounding air and enable the heat generated by the high performance integrated devices (or circuits) to be dissipated more quickly.
The existing mechanisms of integrating packaged chips with heat sinks have their limits in heat dissipation. There is a need for new mechanisms for heat dissipation.